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This paper examines the determinants of the timing of public pension policy retrenchments in 14 affluent democracies. Available research does not satisfactorily capture the multidimensionality of these legislative events, because it relies on indicators of pension policy provisions for current pensioners even though recent retrenchment pension reforms have been characterized by phased-in or grandfathering measures. Instead, this paper identifies these events by considering the individual long-term implications of each pension reform passed in 14 OECD social-insurance countries between 1981 and 2005. Based on a synthetic review of the pension policy literature, data from financial projections, and principles from the economics of welfare programs, I identify 62 pension retrenchments passed in these countries. My argument is that macroeconomic conditions, size of public pension system, and stage in the electoral cycle shape the likelihood of pension retrenchments. Results obtained from conditional frailty models for recurrent and sequential events support this argument. The interval between pension retrenchments is shorter in countries with low economic growth and high public pension spending, as well as in countries in a post-election year.

En este artículo, mediante un abordaje archifilológico, nos proponemos acentuar el devenir de la asociación crítica de Araripe Júnior entre la hiperestesia y los efectos de lectura de los folletines desde sus primeros abordajes de la recepción del naturalismo por parte de escritores jóvenes, en el momento en el que se multiplican exponencialmente las publicaciones periódicas y se constituye un público lector. Reparamos, a su vez, en una asociación recurrente entre una literatura folletinesca considerada descartable y un lector caracterizado como desecho social. El sondeo de su singular concepción de la hiperestesia literaria resulta productivo para trazar nuevos abordajes de su influyente teoría del estilo tropical y de la obnubilación brasílica, proyectada como supervivencia en el canon literario y en los folletines de sus contemporáneos. A su vez, hacemos hincapié en el sentido prescriptivo de los ensayos de Araripe Júnior, dirigidos a los jóvenes escritores de folletines, para conjurar el potencial revulsivo de la literatura hiperestésica naturalista sobre el público masivo y para reconducir su lirismo inervador hacia la constitución de una psicologia do tumulto, que contribuya a una renovación estética y cultural. También en torno a la hiperestesia, la intervención prescriptiva de sus ensayos procura regular la influencia de un Zola monstruoso, en su capacidad de mostrar y hacer sentir la realidad de la vida precaria moderna. Finalmente, observamos su abordaje de la literatura como toxina, en el que resuena una clave farmacológica de la literatura moderna latinoamericana.

This paper examines the determinants of the timing of public pension policy retrenchments in 14 affluent democracies. Available research does not satisfactorily capture the multidimensionality of these legislative events, because it relies on indicators of pension policy provisions for current pensioners even though recent retrenchment pension reforms have been characterized by phased-in or grandfathering measures. Instead, this paper identifies these events by considering the individual long-term implications of each pension reform passed in 14 OECD social-insurance countries between 1981 and 2005. Based on a synthetic review of the pension policy literature, data from financial projections, and principles from the economics of welfare programs, I identify 62 pension retrenchments passed in these countries. My argument is that macroeconomic conditions, size of public pension system, and stage in the electoral cycle shape the likelihood of pension retrenchments. Results obtained from conditional frailty models for recurrent and sequential events support this argument. The interval between pension retrenchments is shorter in countries with low economic growth and high public pension spending, as well as in countries in a post-election year. ; Dieses Papier betrachtet die zeitlichen Muster von Rentenkürzungen und deren Determinanten in wohlhabenden Demokratien. Die derzeitige Forschung berücksichtigt die Multidimensionalität dieser legislativen Maßnahmen nur unzureichend, da sie sich auf die Indikatoren für die aktuelle Rentnerpopulation konzentriert, obwohl diese in Zusammenhang mit bereits eingeleiteten oder früheren gesetzlichen Maßnahmen stehen. Die vorliegende Studie hingegen bezieht die Langzeitfolgen der Rentenreformen und deren Entwicklung in vierzehn OECD Ländern im Zeitraum von 1981 bis 2005 in die Analyse ein. Auf der Grundlage einer zusammenfassenden Bestandsaufnahme der Literatur zur Rentenpolitik, von Daten aus finanziellen Hochrechnungen sowie der ökonomischen Prinzipien von Wohlfahrtsprogrammen werden in diesen Ländern zunächst insgesamt 62 Rentenkürzungsmaßnahmen identifiziert. Zur Erklärung der zeitlichen Abfolge der Maßnahmen werden die makroökonomischen Bedingungen, die Größe des Rentensystems sowie die Zeitpunkte der Anpassungen im Wahlzyklus herangezogen. Die unter Anwendung konditionaler Frailty-Modelle erzielten Resultate stützen das Argument, dass die häufigsten Rentenkürzungen sich in Ländern im Jahr nach der Wahl sowie in Ländern mit geringem Wirtschaftswachstum und hohen Rentenausgaben finden.

This dissertation seeks to explain cross-national differences in the evolution of public pension programs in 21 affluent democracies between 1980 and 2002. Despite a burgeoning literature, critical aspects of pension policy variations such as generosity levels and the passage of retrenching reforms have been inadequately or insufficiently analyzed. The first part of the dissertation describes the type of structural and gradual reforms passed during this period. It shows that most reforms were gradual. Only five countries overhauled their pension policies, while all countries introduced retrenching recalibrations of benefit or coverage levels. Thus, although pension policy has not been dismantled, it has been substantially redesigned across affluent democracies. The second part of the dissertation explains cross-national variations in three pension policy dimensions. First are examined the reasons for the extensive differences in the generosity of old-age pensions for just-retired individuals. Using cross-sectional time-series regression techniques and pension replacement rates for fixed individuals, I show that the power of the elderly (and not class struggles) determined the level of pension generosity. Second, I conduct the first event history (EH) analysis of the passage of retrenching pension reforms. A synthetic review of the pension policy literature reveals that a total of 53 retrenching pension reforms were passed. Further, EH models demonstrate that high public deficits and the gap between the growth rates of social security outlays and revenues drove those retrenchments. A third development during this period involved the enactment of structural pension reforms. To explain how one structural reform was possible, I compare the pension politics leading to the Italian 1995 transition to a notional-defined-contribution (NDC) system and the Spanish 1997 non-structural reform. Based on qualitative evidence, I argue that Italian union leaders sought and imposed the NDC model which eliminated regressiveness suffered by the unions' rank-and-file. By contrast, Spanish union leaders did not seek alternative policy models because public sector workers dominated their rank-and-file and benefited from pension regressiveness. The final study examines attitudinal cleavages on pension policy preferences. It shows that a larger tax wedge and lower elderly poverty rate moderate the higher likelihood of the elderly to demand more pension spending. Thus, the U.S. lacks an age cleavage on pension policy preferences due to a lower tax wedge and higher elderly poverty rate.

Voluntary associations play increasingly important roles in many industrialized societies. However, little is still known about why they die. This article attempts to fill this gap. It reconstructs the history of 41 closed Spanish voluntary associations of Madrid's metropolitan area through archival research and semistructured interviews to define the causes of their dissolutions. The conclusions indicate that the majority of the organizations dissolved due to mission completion (particularly goal fulfillment) and resource insufficiency. This article also uses central predictions of new institutionalism, population ecology, and resource dependence theories and shows that these three models provide valuable insights to account for these dissolutions. As each theory respectively predicts, those organizations with lower sociopolitical legitimacy, that were younger and smaller, or that were funded by only one source dissolved younger.

Thesis discussing land ownership, written with the intention of highlighting the gaps and shortcomings in the laws governing the organization of land ownership. With chapters on the origin, transmission and territorial division of property, the determination of land ownership, demarcation, fenced properties, limits and open properties. Includes an inserted newspaper extract, 'Almanaque', discussing agricultural laws

Al tiempo que presenta la noción de relevancia para el puesto de trabajo en los procedimientos de selección de personal, este artículo plantea precisamente el problema de la relevancia en relación con el contenido del puesto de trabajo en el diseño y administración de los procedimientos de selección de empleados públicos en España. El artículo detalla sobre las razones culturales y socioeconómicas que explican por qué la relevancia para el puesto de trabajo no ha sido una prioridad ni una preocupación en los procesos de selección de empleados públicos del país. Para remediar estas deficiencias relativas a la relevancia para el puesto de trabajo se explican minuciosamente los procedimientos de análisis de puestos de trabajo que implican la identificación de tareas laborales relevantes, el análisis del contexto en el que los titulares del trabajo realizan tales tareas y la inferencia de las características personales necesarias para el desempeño de dichas tareas. El artículo proporciona pautas y ejemplos del modo en que estos procedimientos de análisis de puestos ayudan a desarrollar el diseño y planificación de exámenes al tiempo que facilitan la construcción de procedimientos de selección de empleados públicos con contenidos relevantes para el puesto.
Artikulu honetan, langileak hautatzeko prozeduretan aplikatzekoa den lanposturako garrantziaren nozioa aurkezten da eta, era berean, hain zuzen ere, lanpostuaren edukiaren araberako garrantzia aintzat hartzeak Espainiako enplegatu publikoak hautatzeko prozeduren diseinuan eta administrazioan eragiten duen arazoa planteatzen du. Herrialdeko enplegatu publikoak hautatzeko prozesuetan lanposturako garrantzia orain arte lehentasun edo kezka bat ez izatearen arrazoi kultural eta sozioekonomikoei buruz teorizatzen du artikuluak. Lanposturako garrantziaren inguruko gabezia horiek konpontzeko, lanpostuak aztertzeko prozedurak zehatz-mehatz azaltzen dira. Prozedura horietan, honako alderdi hauek barne hartzen dira: lan-zeregin garrantzitsuak identifikatzea, lanaren titularrek zeregin horiek zer testuingurutan betetzen dituzten aztertzea eta zeregin horiek betetzeko zer ezaugarri izan behar dituzten ondorioztatzea. Artikuluan jarraibide batzuk ematen dira, eta, zenbait adibideren bidez, lanpostuak aztertzeko prozedura horiek azterketak diseinatzen eta planifikatzen laguntzen dutela erakusten da, baita enplegatu publikoak lanposturako garrantzitsuak diren edukiak barne hartuta hautatzeko prozedurak eraikitzea errazten dutela ere.
Whereas this article introduces the notion of job-relatedness in employee selection procedures, it raises a question precisely about job-relatedness in the design and administration of public employee selection procedures in Spain. The article elaborates on the cultural and socio-economic reasons explaining why job-relatedness has been neither a priority nor a concern in the country´s public employee selection procedures. To remedy these job-relatedness deficiencies, job-analytic procedures involving the identification of relevant job tasks, the analysis of the context in which job incumbents perform such tasks, and the derivation of human attributes required for job task performance are thoroughly explained. The article provides guidelines and examples of how these job-analytic procedures help develop test plans while facilitating the construction of job-related public employee selection procedures.

La tesi di dottorato ha come oggetto di studio gli aspetti sostanziali della vendita giudiziale da un punto di vista comparatistico tra Spagna e Italia. Si tratta di un tema che non è stato analizzato profondamente dalle più recenti dottrine spagnola e italiana, che è caratterizzato da una notevole complessità tecnica visto il suo forte carattere interdisciplinare (in particolare, processuale-sostanziale) e la cui vigenza attuale è stata intensificata dalla grande quantità di processi di esecuzione che in questo periodo di instabilità economica sono una constante nei Tribunali spagnoli e italiani. Il fatto che costituisca un'istituzione giuridica inquadrata nell'ambito del processo di espropriazione forzata fa sì che questa possieda un accentuato carattere processuale e, infatti, è il legislatore processuale che si occupa per la maggior parte del suo regime giuridico. Tuttavia, al di là di questa sua natura evidentemente processuale, essa produce una serie di effetti sostanziali di enorme importanza, che sono proprio l'oggetto della tesi di dottorato, nello specifico ambito dei beni immobili (considerando la grande importanza economica e pratica dei diritti di questa natura nella nostra realtà socio-economica). ; The PhD thesis seeks the study of the civil aspects of the judicial sale from a comparative point of view between Italy and Spain. It is a subject which hasn't been deeply analyzed by the recent Italian and Spanish doctrine, and which is characterized by a considerable technical complexity due to its interdisciplinary nature (mainly, procedural and civil). It is also a current issue in this period of economic crisis in which foreclosure processes are a day by day reality of our Courts. The fact of being an institution framed in the foreclosure process outlines its procedural nature, but that cannot hide the fact of producing important civil effects of great importance which are precisely the aim of the PhD thesis.